Manav is planning to visit all UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Delhi. He will be visiting
- (a)Red Fort, Qutab Minar, Jama Masjid
- (b)Red Fort, India Gate, Qutab Minar
- (c)Red Fort, Qutab Minar, Humayun Tomb
- (d)Red Fort, Humayun Tomb, India Gate
Correct — C, Red Fort, Qutab Minar, Humayun Tomb. Delhi has exactly three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and these are they. Humayun's Tomb and the Qutb Minar complex were both inscribed in 1993, and the Red Fort Complex followed in 2007. Nothing else in the city is on the list. That single fact does all the work here, because every option opens with the Red Fort, so the question is really asking which two of Jama Masjid, India Gate, Qutb Minar and Humayun's Tomb complete the set. Both India Gate and the Jama Masjid are missing from the World Heritage List altogether, so any option carrying either of them fails, and only the third option avoids both.
- (a)Red Fort, Qutab Minar, Jama Masjid — The Jama Masjid is not a World Heritage Site. Shah Jahan's great congregational mosque in Shahjahanabad is a protected monument of national importance and one of the largest mosques in India, but it has never been inscribed, and this option leaves out Humayun's Tomb, which has.
- (b)Red Fort, India Gate, Qutab Minar — India Gate is not a World Heritage Site either. Edwin Lutyens designed it as a memorial to soldiers of the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War — a twentieth-century memorial arch, not an inscribed heritage property.
- (d)Red Fort, Humayun Tomb, India Gate — Gets Humayun's Tomb right and then substitutes India Gate for the Qutb Minar complex. The Qutb Minar and its Monuments were inscribed in the same year as Humayun's Tomb, 1993.
The World Heritage List is maintained under the 1972 UNESCO convention, and a property enters it only when the World Heritage Committee inscribes it for outstanding universal value. India's tally now stands at 45 inscribed properties — 37 cultural, seven natural and one mixed, Khangchendzonga National Park — and it was smaller on the day of this exam, since inscriptions are added most years. Delhi's three have not changed since 2007, and all three are cultural and all three Sultanate or Mughal: the Qutb Minar and its Monuments and Humayun's Tomb in 1993, the Red Fort Complex in 2007.
The wording matters. National importance and world heritage are different registers, and Indian cities are full of magnificent protected monuments that are not inscribed — the Jama Masjid is the standing example. India Gate is the easier eliminate once you notice its date; nothing built in the 1930s as a war memorial is going to sit on a list dominated by Mughal and Sultanate architecture. The examiner also does something helpful by putting the Red Fort in all four options: it removes one variable and turns the question into a two-out-of-four choice. Keep the phrasing of the citations in mind too, since the inscriptions are of complexes rather than single buildings — 'Qutb Minar and its Monuments' takes in the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Iron Pillar, and 'Red Fort Complex' takes in Salimgarh.
- Delhi has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Humayun's Tomb (1993), Qutb Minar and its Monuments (1993) and the Red Fort Complex (2007).
- India's total now stands at 45 World Heritage Sites — 37 cultural, seven natural and one mixed.
- The Jama Masjid and India Gate are not on the World Heritage List.
- Humayun's Tomb is the earliest of the great Mughal garden tombs in India, and the line of building that leads to the Taj Mahal begins with it.
- The Red Fort was built by Shah Jahan as the palace fort of his new capital, Shahjahanabad.
- Assuming a famous monument must be a World Heritage Site. The Jama Masjid is not inscribed.
- Forgetting that all four options share the Red Fort, which reduces the question to a choice between two names.
- Mixing up the years — the two 1993 inscriptions came fourteen years before the Red Fort's.
As a list of World Heritage Sites in a city or state, as a year-of-inscription match, or as a statement item on India's total count of inscribed properties.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following monuments in Delhi is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
- (a)Red Fort Complex
- (b)Qutb Minar and its Monuments
- (c)Jama Masjid
- (d)Humayun's Tomb
Answer(c) Jama Masjid — it is a protected monument of national importance but has never been inscribed on the World Heritage List.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Humayun's Tomb and the Qutb Minar complex were inscribed as World Heritage Sites in which year?
- (a)1983
- (b)1993
- (c)2007
- (d)2014
Answer(b) 1993 — the Red Fort Complex was added later, in 2007.